Weather experts meeting at Exeter's Met Office have identified a possible cause for the series of bad summers which have devastated the local tourist and farming industries.
They say the latest research has identified a link between cyclic changes in the temperature of the North Atlantic, and the position of the jet stream.
They already know that if the jet stream gets stuck over the UK, that delivers a wet summer....while if it is stuck over Iceland, that brings cold dry winters and warm summers.
Professor Stephen Belcher said the Atlantic cycles can last 10 or 20 years - but that's based on the available data which only goes back for less than a century, and it's not possible to say with any degree of certainty when the current cycle will end.
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